Intergraph has released the first production version of its SmartPlant Enterprise solution for the mining, port, power, pulp and paper industries, SmartPlant 3D Materials Handling Edition, to automate the design and modeling of bulk materials handling systems.

Two companies, Sinclair, Knight and Merz (SKM) and United Group Ltd. (UGL) Resources, provided industry input to Intergraph in the development of SmartPlant 3D Materials Handling Edition and are committed to using the solution on upcoming projects.

SKM is a leading engineering, sciences and project delivery firm, and UGL Resources is a construction, engineering, asset management and maintenance provider offering integrated solutions to the mining and mineral processing, oil and gas, chemical and heavy manufacturing sectors. SKM is currently in the process of implementing the solution on a mining project in Chile.

"SKM has worked with Intergraph to develop the SmartPlant 3D Materials Handling module, and is currently integrating this with SKM's global delivery systems," said Denis Hamel, SKM's global engineering manager for Mining and Metals. "The technology will significantly improve cost and time efficiencies, creating real value in the design and delivery of projects worldwide"

"The solution created by Intergraph in consultation with UGL Resources and SKM, to meet the requirements developed throughout a proof-of-concept phase is truly cutting edge," said Jeff Lawrence, Projects Development and Systems manager at UGL Resources. "We expect this technology to revolutionize the work processes and methods used to design, fabricate, construct and commission materials handling systems. This is the new industry-standard approach for bulk materials handling systems.

Patrick Holcomb, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine executive vice president said, "Our SmartPlant 3D Materials Handling Edition solution capitalizes both on our internal strengths in 3D design for the process, power, and marine industries, as well as the expertise from two of the world's leading engineering, construction and consulting firms in metals and mining. This solution expands our SmartPlant Enterprise applications portfolio to reach new industries within the process, power and marine market segments."

Key features of SmartPlant 3D Materials Handling Edition include:

* Conveyor belt line layout a simple, easy-to-use workflow enables conveyor belt design and layout in a 3D environment, complete with associated belt line equipment such as idlers, pulleys, gantries, scrapers and conveyor drives * Transfer Chute Design SP3D MHE allows users to design to the detailing and manufacturing level, * Significant 3D display performance designers can perform 3D navigation on even the largest models with response performance as much as 10 times faster than previously available * Design reuse a new "Model Data Reuse Wizard" allows users to copy systems and the objects nested under those systems to a new destination within the same plant model. This is a significant market differentiator that allows the systematic reuse of 3D model data

SmartPlant 3D Materials Handling Edition automates much of the design process, allowing changes to be completed faster with detailed fabrication-level deliverables for chute plate design, reducing the need for third-party software. Faster completion of projects directly relates to a reduction of man-hours required to achieve system options and to lower project costs and increase overall revenue. Also enhancing the ability to reduce capital expenditure (CAPEX) cost is the opportunity to design and model sections of the system once, save them to a catalog and reuse the design in future projects.